1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to a system and method for providing support and on-line communication. Specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to tools that may be used with an on-line support system with persistent chat and automatic media integration features.
2. Background
Companies which deliver products to end users, especially, complex or technical products, typically also provide support to the end users to assist the end users with their products. Traditional support has been through on-location sales or technical personnel, traditional correspondence and telephone correspondence.
Increasingly, companies are turning to on-line support as a tool for assisting their customers. On-line support is typically provided through email, chat rooms or forums. Each of these tools has limitations in providing quick and effect support to end users.
Some companies provide an email address through which end users can contact technical or sales personnel. End users send questions by email to a company support email address. A company technician or salesperson then replies to the end user emails. However, an end user does not know when an email has been received or viewed and may become frustrated if a quick response is not forthcoming. End users may not provide sufficient information to the company in their email to answer the support questions that are asked. Multiple exchanges of email may be necessary. This process can take hours, days or even weeks. Also, the same company technician may not be available to answer each email received from an end user. As a result, the end user may be frustrated with inconsistent answers and the length of time involved in obtaining a resolution to his problem.
Some companies provide a chat room to allow users to more quickly interact with support personnel. The chat room may be provided through a company website. An end user can more quickly interact with support personnel, but still may have difficulty in providing sufficient information to the support personnel to properly diagnose and resolve a problem. In addition, the user does not have a permanent record to refer to if the problem occurs again. The instructions and advice provided by the support personnel in the chat room are lost as a chat session is closed or if the chat session exceeds a limit of a content window or log length. Also, if a user leaves a session then the dialogue from the session is lost.
Some companies provide forums for user support. Forums help support personnel to avoid having to repetitively answer the same questions for multiple end users, because they provide a permanent record of the questions and answers processed by the support personnel. Forums allow a user to post questions on a web page and to search through previous discussion threads to find answers to his questions. However, an end user who does not find an answer in the forum must wait for a support personnel response and, like email, this process may takes hours, days or even weeks. Navigating forums can also be confusing and the process of posting a message to a forum can be complicated and slow.
As a result of the limitations of online support tools, companies must maintain the traditional support tools and many provide several separate and redundant on-line support tools to meet the needs of end users of their products.